Nikki: Wellbeing of the team

In this weeks blog article my lovely member Nikki,  a daycare manager of a nursery based in Leeds, shares with us how she supports the wellbeing of her team. 

I suffer from burn out. I have done for years. I think Early years lends itself to never ending to do lists and wanting to get it right for children, families and the team. I now know I have to plan self-care in to my routine to look after myself. I make sure I spend time outside throughout the week (usually at the local nature reserve), I use a meditation app daily and to support my sleep and in the darker months I use my daylight lamp to improve my SAD (Seasonal affective disorder). These changes to my life style is what led me to discovering Hygge and then Hygge in the early years.

As early years practitioners we know the importance of children's wellbeing, we even go as far as to monitoring wellbeing levels using the Leuvens scale. We are also aware that low wellbeing results in low levels of involvement and engagement, so what about the adults? This is something that I think is often overlooked.

This is now something I am trying to prioritise in our team values in our setting. Last year we developed a wellbeing plan, it was the first year of doing so and I was unsure how it would look - but it has been effective so far. I'm hoping to develop it further this academic year.

We started the academic year with a Hygge training day to introduce the concept to the team. Each member of the team got an invite asking them to bring a pair of fluffy socks, their favourite mug and add a song that made them smile to the play list in the staff room. On the day the team arrived with everything we had asked, we decorated our training space to make if feel more homely and had a Hygge day focused on wellbeing and planning how we could get it right for the adults (at home and at work) and what the impact might be on the children. We shared lunch together, listened to our ‘happy team playlist’ at made s’mores around the fire pit.

Throughout the day we thought about how to create a cosy and welcoming atmosphere for everyone that visited our centre, we recognised this was a priority. From that we revamped the staff room to create a place to relax, removing all the unnecessary work memos and looked at other ways of getting messages to the team. We added mirrors to increase the natural day light coming in, got a lamp and an arm chair to develop a reading nook with a staff lending library and added some indoor plants. We also now have a basket of goodies and a fruit basket the team keep topped up to brighten up people’s breaks.

Before

After

We planned wellbeing activities over the year which included termly team awards, self-care goodie bags, personalised CPD notebooks for each member of the team, out of work activities such as wellbeing walks, trips to the theatre and meals out. We introduced wellbeing 1:1’s so each member of the team got an opportunity to chat half termly. I planned these to be in the staff room with a cup of tea and a biscuit to make them feel informal. Nothing is recorded unless I have an action from the conversation. It is an opportunity for the team to celebrate something they have done, discuss future ideas, things they are struggling with, home stresses, and any team stresses, anything that they want to share or get of their chest. This has supported building relationships within the team. We also planned in time for room meetings as well as whole team meetings, providing further opportunity for the room teams to talk, plan and work together.

This is still very much working progress but I think that having a plan and referring to wellbeing raises awareness within the team and highlights the importance of self-care and work life balance.

Nikki

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